An all-metal compound is the perfect format for Peri Wolfman and Charley Gold's pristine world

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There are certain perfectly well-ordered worlds that immediately inspire awe in less organized beings--as well as hope that the deities of discipline will one day shine upon them too. Welcome to the staggeringly pristine Hamptons country house of Peri Wolfman, product designer and stylist extraordinaire, and Charley Gold, still-life photographer and author, with his wife, of numerous tabletop-decorating and design books.

First, the approach: a winding road lined with cornfields and wildflowers waving gently in the breeze under an electric-blue sky, with hardly another house in sight but for an idyllic red barn straight out of a stage set. Minutes later, a tidy group of plain white structures emerges. Move past the picture-perfect herb garden out front through a meticulously arranged mudroom where boots and hats are dropped--neatly, of course--and enter an impeccable realm where every last detail has been assiduously attended to and everything is in its place. Really.

Building all this was a joint effort between the couple and Jack Ceglic, a New York designer with a reputation for crafting livable contemporary houses out of off-the-shelf metal cladding. Seeing Ceglic's own corrugated-steel home in East Hampton inspired Wolfman and Gold to commission the designer to build them one of their own. "I just loved the feeling of it," says Wolfman of Ceglic's industrial-farmhouse style. But she also envisioned a residence with enclosed courtyards for privacy. Or as Gold, wary of Hamptons megahouses crowded onto small lots, explains, "We wanted to feel like someone could put up a skyscraper next to us and we would never know."

While using a metal shell cost a fraction of what it would to install the cedar shingles so prevalent in the area, and the pre-engineered parts went up quickly, it took time and talent to complete the project. In the beginning, the three planned the structure without knowing precisely how it would be configured; gradually the house took shape as a series of four shedlike wings and a central barn, with a separate building by the pool. At various points, the 4,000-square-foot interior opens to cement-walled courtyards that keep the deer at bay. ("I like to look at them but don't want them to eat our bushes," Wolfman explains.) There are open-air enclosures for the swimming pool, the herb garden, the outdoor dining terrace with a fireplace, along with another off the playroom where the couple's five grandchildren can scatter toys and romp without getting into trouble.

"I did a building," Ceglic says modestly. "They made it into a home." Wolfman's touches included installing wood floors throughout and a master bathroom with a spacious open shower and a smooth, sculptural tub. Accommodating the couple's penchant for entertaining on a large scale meant ensuring that every housekeeping detail was in place: The four guest rooms--each outfitted with a corner sink as well as a separate bathroom en suite--feel like they belong in a five-star hotel, from the reading lights situated just so to super-thread-count linens to fluffy bath towels. For cooking, there's a stainless-steel kitchen featuring two sinks, two dishwashers, and a large center island. A pair of 40-inch-by-10-foot dining tables can be joined end to end for a banquet-style rectangle, and 20 Arne Jacobsen chairs stored in two stacks look attractive even when off duty.

"Part of the plan here was to have room for the things I love," says Wolfman, an owner of the seminal SoHo home accessories shop Wolfman-Gold & Good Co., which closed in 1999, and former vice president of product development for Williams- Sonoma. "I have 24 dinner plates and 24 salad plates and buy at least 14 of everything else," she adds. "I absolutely love tableware, and I want to see it all the time. I love the repetition, the rows of things of the same shape." That means open shelving in the kitchen for "glasses and more glasses and those ironstone pitchers I schlep everywhere."

Wolfman's storage spaces include an enviable pantry with floor-to-ceiling shelves stocked to the rafters with her signature white china and a linen closet where piles of towels and stacks of sheets are perfectly folded. The neat-as-a-pin basement features a large laundry room, wine cellar, woodworking shop, and yet more shelves from which the couple likes to "shop" for items from their previous homes that might migrate up to the living room.

It took time to arrive at this serene black-and-white utopia in which everything is framed, contained, and arranged. But now that the hydrangeas, trees, and vines have grown in to soften the cement walls of the courtyards, it all appears seamless. "If you're sitting in the living room, you can look one way and see the outdoor fireplace dead center in one courtyard, then turn in the opposite direction and you will be looking directly out to the swimming pool," Wolfman explains. "I like when things are centered and in pairs." Better yet, the finished house seems to have cast a calming spell over its never-sit-still occupants. "These days," she admits, "I think it's the courtyards, where I don't do much of anything, that I love best."